Caribbean Surname Index

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Hi I am related to a Sarah Cover from St. Ann. She was my great great grand mother. she was born around 1845 and had the followng the children Andrew, Francis/Frances og Ada (who is my grandmother). Do you know if you are connected to this branch.Best wishesStephen Croasdaile

Hi Stephen,I do not see a Sarah Cover with the children you named, Andrew,Francis/Frances or Ada on my tree. The original Cover to come to the Island from England, as far as I have been able to determine, was a John Cover.. He married Mary Hall in 1822 in St Ann. Many of his children had both legitimate and illegitimate children (and maybe he himself had illegitimate children). And he did own slaves, who might have taken his name at emancipation. So although I think the name is probably derived from this Cover, it is difficult to say which one is the correct line to pursue. For example there is a Sarah Jane Cover b 1853 who married into the Ingram family. She was the outside daughter of John Foster Cover, the above John Cover's son. In other words I am saying that apart form the slaves who took the name, I think all Covers in the Dry Harbour Mountains of St Ann are probably related. How they are related in sometimes a puzzle! Madeleine

Hi MadeleineThanks for you reply. I kind of knew it would be a long shot. It is just so difficult tracing ancestors in Jamaica. As one does not know if you are truly related by birth or by taken on the slave owners name. I'll keep digging and good luck with your family search. Stephen

There are a number of web sites which offer transcripts of slave records, maybe you can find more there... you might check the "Useful Links" section of this Index for URLs and then try Google with suitable search keywords.

Please just be aware that slaves often took the surnames of their former masters at manumission or emancipation, so sometimes you have to try and separate the owner family from the slave family, as well as make allowance for the fact that the owner and slave family may be one and the same!! That clarification only comes with research and records.

If the birth record does not name the father at all, the implication is that the mother was not married, and if the mother was a negro also that the father was white (and vice versa). But sometimes the child was given the father's surname - that's just a hint of a possibility for connections.

Re: your Percival... in some cases events - such as births - were not registered for a long time after the fact, although three years is a bit of a stretch for an actual birth registration. Unless you are assuming a baptism as a birth, in which case I have seen the interval as long as 20 years or more (one was in my family, the mother baptising the first child and herself on the same occasion). So don't discard the possibility that yours may have been born years before the 1873 date given in the IGI and then marrying Maria Maude Stewart July 1, 1886. I'm suggesting that there is still a possibility the same Percival listed in the IGI may have been older than the apparent 13 years when he got married to Maria Maude in your record.

I believe that my Percival’s mother’s name may have been Jane and that he was born ~1888. “Verrie” is Veronica b ~1905. Vivian had 3 children with “Rose/Rosie” (possibly a descendant of the Williams family?) and 6 children with Mavis Ward. Does any of this match up with anyone’s research?

At this point I would like to confirm Percival’s DOB, DOD and POB and parents names. Any additional information would be appreciated.